Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 1 Study #2
June 27, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(414)
1901 ASV
10:2 And there came unto him Pharisees, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away [his] wife? trying him.
10:3 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?
10:4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.
10:5 But Jesus said unto them, For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
10:6 But from the beginning of the creation, Male and female made he them.
10:7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife;
10:8 and the two shall become one flesh: so that they are no more two, but one flesh.
10:9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
10:10 And in the house the disciples asked him again of this matter.
10:11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her:
10:12 and if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery.
- I. The Larger Context.
- II. The Details.
- A. "From Thence He Is Going...".
- B. "Beyond The Jordan".
- C. "He Was Teaching Them".
- 1. This is the critical issue, upon which the entire 'edifice" of the "religion of the Jews" was resting (as is the case in all such situations).
- 2. There cannot be any genuine "faith" in a vacuum of doctrinal content.
- 3. The "transformation" of people by reason of the doctrinal content of their "religion" is rooted in a genuine "rejection" of former "religious truths" coupled with a strong contrasting alternative commitment to distinctly different "religious truths" (Romans 12:2).
- a. The claim of "I do not know", so I go by what I 'feel'" is unacceptable: nothing can be known, or can be an object of religious devotion, that does not first pass through the mind (language is totally incapable of communicating "truth" if there are no boundaries on "language").
- b. The revelation of truth in the Scriptures assumes the required mental activity involved in understanding how to function.
- c. The basic Biblical hermeneutic is revealed by Paul to Timothy in two instructions: 1 Timothy 4:13 and 2 Timothy 2:7.
- d. What Jesus was "teaching" was admittedly, seriously, not taught by the scribes (1:27).
- 1) This "what" concerns the distinction between "Law" and "Grace" as it is applied to a person's relationship with God.
- 2) That it was not being taught by the scribes indicates the depth of the departure from God that was manifestly apparent in the first century.
- D. The Coming Of The Pharisees.
- 1. Pharisees.
- a. Mark refers to this group in 11 texts of his Gospel.
- 1) The initial reference shows them to be external, nit-pickers whose concept of "godliness" was that of "appearances" in direct opposition to the biblical, "men look on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7/Matthew 23:28).
- 2) In 8:15 Jesus declared this group to be "leavened" by a deadly leaven.
- 3) And in 12:13 their method of attack is revealed: "...to trap Him in a statement".
- b. Mark's record is decidedly attempting to put people on their guard against the teachings of the Pharisees.
- 2. Purpose for coming: to attempt to trip Jesus up with a "hot potato" issue: the question of the legitimacy of divorce...is it "lawful?"
- a. As is the case today, so also was the case in the first century: the "problem" of the difficulties involved in the relational realities of two people whose "oneness" begins immediately at the physical level, but takes a long time to arrive in the other areas of life.
- b. "Law" has "permission because of hard-heartedness" and "Grace" has forgiveness for those who have failed (but not the "lifting" of the Law of the Harvest).
- 3. Jesus' answer: What did Moses command you?
- 4. Their response: Moses "permitted" a certificate of divorce and the sending of the wife away.
- 5. Jesus' reaction.
- a. That "permission" was a response to man's hardness of heart.
- b. But from the beginning of creation, He made them male and female.
- c. For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother.
- d. A bracketed "and shall cleave to his wife" follows.
- e. They two shall be unto one flesh so that they are no longer two but one flesh.
- f. Therefore what The God has "yoked" let not man divide.
- E. The subsequent questions of the disciples.
- F. Jesus tells them that "it is adultery" for either man or wife to put the spouse away and join himself/herself to another.
- G. Mark does not elaborate where other recorders of Jesus' teaching do.